Told By "the Noted Traveler" Poem Rhyme Scheme

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James Whitcomb Riley

Told By "the Noted Traveler" Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Coming clean from the Maryland end	A
Of this great National Road of ours	B
Through your vast West with the time to spend	A
Stopping for days in the main towns where	C
Every citizen seemed a friend	A
And friends grew thick as the wayside flowers	B
I found no thing that I might narrate	D
More singularly strange or queer	E
Than a thing I found in your sister state	D
Ohio at a river town down here	F
In my notebook Zanesville situate	D
On the stream Muskingum broad and clear	E
And navigable through half the year	E
North to Coshocton south as far	G
As Marietta But these facts are	G
Not of the story but the scene	H
Of the simple little tale I mean	H
To tell directly from this straight through	I
To the end that is best worth listening to	I
	-
Eastward of Zanesville two or three	J
Miles from the town as our stage drove in	K
I on the driver's seat and he	J
Pointing out this and that to me	J
On beyond us among the rest	L
A grovey slope and a fluttering throng	M
Of little children which he guessed	L
Was a picnic as we caught their thin	K
High laughter as we drove along	M
Clearer and clearer Then suddenly	J
He turned and asked with a curious grin	K
What were my views on Slavery Why	N
I asked in return with a wary eye	N
Because he answered pointing his whip	O
At a little whitewashed house and shed	P
On the edge of the road by the grove ahead	P
Because there are two slaves there he said	P
Two Black slaves that I've passed each trip	O
For eighteen years Though they've been set free	J
They have been slaves ever since said he	J
And as our horses slowly drew	I
Nearer the little house in view	I
All briefly I heard the history	J
Of this little old Negro woman and	Q
Her husband house and scrap of land	R
How they were slaves and had been made free	J
By their dying master years ago	S
In old Virginia and then had come	T
North here into a free state so	S
Safe forever to found a home	U
For themselves alone for they left South there	C
Five strong sons who had alas	V
All been sold ere it came to pass	V
This first old master with his last breath	W
Had freed the parents He went to death	W
Agonized and in dire despair	C
That the poor slave children might not share	C
Their parents' freedom And wildly then	X
He moaned for pardon and died Amen	X
	-
Thus with their freedom and little sum	T
Of money left them these two had come	T
North full twenty long years ago	S
And settling there they had hopefully	J
Gone to work in their simple way	Y
Hauling gardening raising sweet	Z
Corn and popcorn Bird and bee	J
In the garden blooms and the apple tree	J
Singing with them throughout the slow	S
Summer's day with its dust and heat	Z
The crops that thirst and the rains that fail	A2
Or in Autumn chill when the clouds hung low	S
And hand made hominy might find sale	A2
In the near town market or baking pies	B2
And cakes to range in alluring show	S
At the little window where the eyes	B2
Of the Movers' children driving past	C2
Grew fixed till the big white wagons drew	I
Into a halt that would sometimes last	C2
Even the space of an hour or two	I
As the dusty thirsty travelers made	D2
Their noonings there in the beeches' shade	D2
By the old black Aunty's spring house where	C
Along with its cooling draughts were found	E2
Jugs of her famous sweet spruce beer	E
Served with her gingerbread horses there	C
While Aunty's snow white cap bobbed 'round	E2
Till the children's rapture knew no bound	E2
As she sang and danced for them quavering clear	E
And high the chant of her old slave days	F2
	-
Oh Lo'd Jinny my toes is so'	F2
Dancin' on yo' sandy flo'	A2
	-
Even so had they wrought all ways	F2
To earn the pennies and hoard them too	I
And with what ultimate end in view	I
They were saving up money enough to be	J
Able in time to buy their own	G2
Five children back	H2
	-
Ah the toil gone through	I
And the long delays and the heartaches too	I
And self denials that they had known	G2
But the pride and glory that was theirs	F2
When they first hitched up their shackly cart	I2
For the long long journey South The start	I2
In the first drear light of the chilly dawn	J2
With no friends gathered in grieving throng	M
With no farewells and favoring prayers	F2
But as they creaked and jolted on	K2
Their chiming voices broke in song	M
	-
'Hail all hail don't you see the stars a fallin'	K2
Hail all hail I'm on my way	Y
Gideon am	L2
A healin' ba'm	L2
I belong to the blood washed army	L2
Gideon am	L2
A healin' ba'm	L2
On my way '	-
	-
And their return with their oldest boy	M2
Along with them Why their happiness	F2
Spread abroad till it grew a joy	M2
Universal It even reached	N2
And thrilled the town till the Church was stirred	O2
Into suspecting that wrong was wrong	M
And it stayed awake as the preacher preached	N2
A Real Love text that he had not long	M
To ransack for in the Holy Word	O2
	-
And the son restored and welcomed so	F2
Found service readily in the town	K2
And with the parents sure and slow	F2
He went saltin' de cole cash down	K2
	-
So with the next boy and each one	K2
In turn till four of the five at last	C2
Had been bought back and in each case	F2
With steady work and good homes not	P2
Far from the parents they chipped in	K2
To the family fund with an equal grace	F2
Thus they managed and planned and wrought	Q2
And the old folks throve Till the night before	R2
They were to start for the lone last son	K2
In the rainy dawn their money fast	C2
Hid away in the house two mean	K2
Murderous robbers burst the door	R2
Then in the dark was a scuffle a fall	A2
An old man's gasping cry and then	K2
A woman's fife like shriek	S2
	-
Three men	K2
Splashing by on horseback heard	O2
The summons And in an instant all	A2
Sprung to their duty with scarce a word	O2
And they were in time not only to save	T2
The lives of the old folks but to bag	U2
Both the robbers and buck and gag	U2
And land them safe in the county jail	A2
Or as Aunty said with a blended awe	V2
And subtlety Safe in de calaboose whah	V2
De dawgs caint bite 'em	L2
	-
So prevail	A2
The faithful So had the Lord upheld	W2
His servants of both deed and prayer	C
HIS the glory unparalleled	W2
Theirs the reward their every son	K2
Free at last as the parents were	X2
And as the driver ended there	C
In front of the little house I said	P
All fervently Well done well done	K2
At which he smiled and turned his head	P
And pulled on the leaders' lines and See	L2
He said 'you can read old Aunty's sign	K2
And peering down through these specs of mine	K2
On a little square board sign I read	P
	-
Stop traveler if you think it fit	Y2
And quench your thirst for a fip and a bit	Y2
The rocky spring is very clear	E
And soon converted into beer	E
	-
And though I read aloud I could	Z2
Scarce hear myself for laugh and shout	A3
Of children a glad multitude	B3
Of little people swarming out	A3
Of the picnic grounds I spoke about	A3
And in their rapturous midst I see	L2
Again through mists of memory	L2
A black old Negress laughing up	C3
At the driver with her broad lips rolled	D3
Back from her teeth chalk white and gums	F2
Redder than reddest red ripe plums	F2
He took from her hand the lifted cup	C3
Of clear spring water pure and cold	D3
And passed it to me And I raised my hat	E3
And drank to her with a reverence that	E3
My conscience knew was justly due	I
The old black face and the old eyes too	I
The old black head with its mossy mat	E3
Of hair set under its cap and frills	F2
White as the snows on Alpine hills	F2
Drank to the old black smile but yet	F3
Bright as the sun on the violet	Y2
Drank to the gnarled and knuckled old	D3
Black hands whose palms had ached and bled	P
And pitilessly been worn pale	A2
And white almost as the palms that hold	D3
Slavery's lash while the victim's wail	A2
Fails as a crippled prayer might fail	A2
Aye with a reverence infinite	G3
I drank to the old black face and head	P
The old black breast with its life of light	H3
The old black hide with its heart of gold	D3